Rome

The capital of the Roman Empire that dominated the Mediterranean world during the New Testament era. Rome served as the destination of Paul’s final missionary journey and became the traditional martyrdom site of both Paul and Peter, transforming from Christianity’s greatest persecutor to its eventual imperial patron and the seat of Western Christendom.

The book of Acts culminates with Paul’s arrival in Rome around 60 CE. Though a prisoner appealing to Caesar, Paul lived under house arrest with relative freedom, “proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance” (Acts 28:31). For two years, he received visitors and wrote several epistles (Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon) while awaiting trial. His letter to the Romans, written earlier, had expressed his long-held desire to visit: “I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome” (Romans 1:15).

According to early church tradition, Paul was released from this first imprisonment, continued missionary work, then was arrested again during Nero’s persecution of Christians (64-68 CE). His second Roman imprisonment produced 2 Timothy, written from a dungeon cell with the awareness that his “departure has come” (2 Timothy 4:6). Tradition holds that Paul, as a Roman citizen, was beheaded outside Rome’s walls around 67 CE. Peter also reportedly came to Rome, where he led the church and was crucified upside down (at his own request, feeling unworthy to die as Christ did) during the same Neronian persecution.

Rome’s relationship with Christianity progressed from sporadic persecution under Nero and Domitian to systematic empire-wide persecution under Decius and Diocletian, yet the faith grew despite—or perhaps because of—this opposition. The blood of martyrs proved “the seed of the church,” as Tertullian observed. In 313 CE, Emperor Constantine’s Edict of Milan granted religious tolerance, and by 380 CE under Theodosius I, Christianity became Rome’s official religion. The city that had executed apostles became the ecclesiastical center of Western Christianity, with the Bishop of Rome (the Pope) claiming primacy over the church.